Cheap, easy and tasty: baked yam.

Yams just about to go into the oven

Bought two big yams today for $2.45.

Pineapple and Yam Cake

What to do with some pieces of fresh (or canned) pineapple that you don’t wanna eat anymore and some yam you didn’t use? Just make a pineapple and yam cake! You’ll need: 1 and 1/4 cup of oil or butter, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, salt, baking soda, 4 eggs, 3 cups grated yam, 1 cup pineapple, and 1 cup walnuts.

Instructions:

1. Mix the melted butter (or oil) with sugar.
2. Add flour, cinnamon and baking soda (I always mix the baking soda with 1 tsp of lemon juice first).
3. Add 4 eggs, one at a time.
4. Incorporate 3 yams, pineapple and walnuts (if the mixture is too thick and sticky, add a bit of milk or water).
5. Pour into a big cake pan and put in the oven (350F) for one hour or until done.

Feta Cheese Veggies

Another way of cooking garlic veggies – this time with a bit of feta cheese (I’m a big fan of the Macedonian feta from Kalamata, the one you can buy for $30/bucket).

Yams and carrots soup

This soup is so easy to make, it would be a shame not to try it. You’ll need: 2-3 yams, 2-3 carrots, 1/2 celery root, 1 onion, 2-3 garlic cloves, 1/2 cup milk, oil, salt, pepper, curry. Optional, you could throw in other root veggies.

Instructions:

1. First, peel and cut into cubes all the root veggies.
2. Finely cut onion and fry it in a bit of oil. Do it in the pot where you’ll cook the soup, so make sure it’s big enough. Add garlic cloves.
3. Once the onion turned translucent, pour 2-3 cups of water and add all the root veggies.
4. When the veggies are soft, add salt and pepper. Mash the veggies (I do it by hand, but if you have a food processor, that works too).
5. Add the curry and the 1/2 cup milk and stir. Let boil for 5 more minutes, remove and serve hot.